To leave my big new job after a week?

[ButteredScone]

I'm looking for career advice. I am pretty junior in my industry. I decided to move on from my previous job at a blue chip firm and took a job at a smaller, newer firm. I was very excited: more money, more training and the opportunity to be part of a fast growing business.

I've just finished the first week and I think I may have made a huge mistake.

The systems are terrible. The IT is done remotely from another country and I haven't had fully functioning systems all week. Even when functional, the systems are inadequate. The staff seem to spend about 70% of their time doing secretarial for the 30% of time spent doing their job. Productivity is inevitably low as a result.

The other people are great and I know I would enjoy working with them. However, it has emerged that there is a high turnover of staff. I'm not surprised.

AIBU to quit even though it will show on my professional record forever? Has anyone else not made the probationary period in a professional role?

If you are at all concerned about your career, YWBU to just quit. YWNBU to look for another job straight away.

However, just pause for a moment. Bad jobs are not good to stick with for long, but you can learn something from virtually anywhere. If you stay for 6 months and then move on, would that be considered bad in your industry? Being able to deal with change, and knowing some of the mistakes not to make is quite valuable (I think you get less from this when you're more junior though). Switching between blue chip and more startup type firms can make for a very attractive CV in some industries, especially fast-changing ones. Whatever you decide, work hard at keeping up your contacts with people from your previous positions.

You could always just leave it off your CV?

Any opportunity to solve some of these problems? You may be junior but sometimes it takes a fresh eye and someone with grit to implement change.

Depends on the employer though. Sometimes ineffiiciencies are so ingrained that they're impossible to change, although that shouldn't be the case at a 'smaller, newer' firm.

My employer is terrible for this. We have to do some many things that are a complete waste of time but it is impossible to change things, you just have to go along with it.

We have to complete time sheets every week, but in 95% of cases it has no bearing on our customers' bills because we charge them a set price for work and we also have other ways of counting up how much work everyone has.

Mandatory online training alarmingly regularly that is totally unrelated to our job or incredibly badly designed.

I once ran a service that for every job (dozens a week) I had to sign a form in three places before we could do the work but no-one could tell me what I was signing for or give examples of reasons I wouldn't sign the form (the admin team checked that the account was up to date). I just had to sign every form three times for no reason whatsoever.

So frustrating,, such a waste of time.

more money, more training and the opportunity to be part of a fast growing business

OK but this doesn't come with quitting after a week!. Sorry to sound blunt but what you describe is very standard nowadays. Advancement doesn't come with an easy life.

IT support is invariably offshore to low cost base countries like India, Manila, Eastern Europe.

Staff doing 2 people's jobs, doing tasks not on their job description.

If you want to advance you have to take the rough with the rough out there I'm afraid. Life ain't easy in corporate, which is why so many fall by the wayside, or those who stay end up wrung out to dry. The survivors manage to move around the organisation quickly enough not to get dragged down.

The main thing that gets you through is a decent supportive manager and at least 2-3 helpful colleagues (cling to them with hoops of steel, they are a rare but vital commodity).

Don't leave without something to go to.

It's not unusual for IT support to be overseas, that doesn't mean bad. It's also not unusual for it to take a week to get access to all the systems you need and get any kinks ironed out on a new starters machine.
On that basis you're being unreasonable.
Give it a better go and keep looking for something else.

well your reasons for not sticking with it sound perfectly valid but you could always 'lose' it your cv.. you might have to make up some cock to explain the gap but it's not that difficult.. time out to travel etc .

I think stick it out for now, it just sounds like you don't like it rather than it is affecting your mental health. Real people at work don't love it all the time and I think there is a lot to be learnt from jobs where things don't run smoothly. Self serving is becoming increasingly popular and it can be shit - I hope it's a phase rather than the future personally. ...

Don't leave until you've lined up another job.

I also used to work in the "shit systems" zone- FTSE 10 company doing group management reporting (not financial reporting before anyone calls BS) in excel. It is soul destroying as means a lot of time spent doing low value add work (e.g. knocking out spreadsheet errors/ re-keying) and it's inefficient due to soloed information. However, it is often the reality of a small/ young company that they haven't made those investments yet.

I'd stick it out and see if I could promote myself through actually coming up with a plan for better systems if you know what competitors are using.

I guess what I'm saying is that smaller companies have less structured hierarchies so if you're a "motivated self-starter" you can jump rungs by showing some initiative and drive more easily than in a large company.

A friend of mine went from PA to the CEO/ Admin Bod of a start up to Operations Director in 3 years, and the company grew a lot in that time so it was a BIG step up.

Boom's advice is spot on. It's common to make a move and regret it - I did it myself. Knew within a month it had been a mistake - I didn't regret leaving my old firm, but I'd picked the wrong place to join for my new job. I stuck it out for 6 months and bloody hell they were 6 long, miserable hard months. I can honestly say they it was THE worst point of my career and the stress was horrid.

However it was hugely useful and I learned a lot from it. On the back of that 6 months I moved within the same firm and into another role which was a much better fit for me. The job I am doing now would not have been possible without that move.

You can always learn something from a job. Use it as a springboard. Identify the benefits and learning experiences that you can gain from this job. Set yourself some objectives for the next 6 months and make sure that you extract every ounce from the job that you can. Find someone in the firm who is achieving - or doing the role that you want next - and find out what their experience is and use them as a model for what you need to work on.

Good luck, stick with it for 6 months - and focus on the fact that more money and more training are not bad things to have under your belt. If nothing else you will gain new experience (smaller growing firms have a very different dynamic and it's always handy to have experience of big and small outfits). The fact that you're earning more has also pushed your market value up as well - which is positive if you are trying to increase your earning power.